WhatsApp messages sent by a suspended Labour MP that appear to mock Jewish clothing threaten to start a new antisemitism row.
Oliver Ryan became the second MP to be suspended on Monday over messages in a WhatsApp group named “Trigger Me Timbers”. Eleven councillors have also been suspended.
Ryan, the MP for Burnley, wrote that he would “eat his hat” if Labour won a 2019 by-election in Peterborough, in messages seen by The Times.
After the party secured a narrow victory, a member of the group wrote that the win had come in spite of antisemitism allegations that were dogging the party at the time.
Ryan responded: “[I] won’t eat my Shtreimel then. Or Kippah, it’ll have to be a cowboy hat or something.”
The Shtreimel and kippah are types of headwear typically worn by orthodox and other practising Jews.
Senior Labour sources said the remarks were being considered as potentially antisemitic.
Ryan was suspended along with Andrew Gwynne, the MP for Gorton & Denton, who was forced to step down as public health minister. The pair were found to have sent hundreds of messages in the WhatsApp group with a handful of Labour figures in Tameside and Stockport in Greater Manchester.
The messages were sent between 2019 and 2022, when Gwynne was an MP but before Ryan joined the Commons. The pair have both apologised and had the whip suspended while a Labour investigation is carried out, after messages were published by The Mail on Sunday.
Other messages seen by The Times reveal that members of the group mocked a young autistic member they called a “chunk”, saying his “backside needs slapping”.
Gwynne also accused Sir Keir Starmer of having “bottled it” by failing to demote Angela Rayner in a reshuffle in 2021. Other group members said Rayner adopted a “virtue signalling/trendy variety” of “fake feminism”.
Gwynne also made a derogatory remark about a gay Labour MP, who The Times has not named. In another comment he said it was a “disability” to be a member of another political faction within the Labour Party.
The 11 suspended councillors are understood to include Allison Gwynne, the wife of the former health minister. Also suspended were Brenda Warrington, a former leader of Tameside council, and Claire Reid, a member of Labour’s national policy forum.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “As soon as this group was brought to our attention, a thorough investigation was launched in line with the Labour Party’s rules and procedures and this process is ongoing. Swift action will always be taken where individuals are found to have breached the high standards expected of them as Labour Party members.”
Gwynne was suspended after it was reported that he had sent messages to the group including a joke about a constituent being “mown down” by a truck. He also said hoped a 72-year-old woman would soon die after she asked a councillor about bin collections, according to The Mail on Sunday.
He said that he deeply regretted his “badly misjudged comments” and apologised for “any offence caused”.
Starmer dismissed him as a minister as soon as he became aware of the comments.
Ryan is also said to have used an offensive nickname to refer to Colin Bailey, a local Labour leader.
He became an MP in July and was previously a Tameside councillor.
Ryan said he had been a member of the group between 2019 and 2022 and regretted not “speaking out at the time” over comments that were “completely unacceptable”.
“I did not see every message, but I accept responsibility for not being more proactive in challenging what was said,” he said.“I also made some comments myself which I deeply regret and would not make today and for that, I wholeheartedly apologise.”
